dvb monkey warning

i would advise people not to buy anything from this company which is based in china. i bought a dm7020si from them and it was faulty when i got it (it never worked ) it even has a rattle inside . they have a support line (which is never online )so your only options are leave a message or email them . i have tried and failed to get any help from them (i have been ignored ) if you are very very lucky and they send you an email (they say please stop contacting us we are not technical) you can foret about the 18 month guarantee they advertise . i have lost in the region of £250 so please be carefull buy local if you can (atleast then you have a guarantee and the law is on your side) better to pay a little extra and have peace of mind. i intend to post this on as many sites as i can and in the end they will have lost a lot more than me .i cant understand companies like this (if i was them i would want to have a good name) and sell more ,not have a bad name and sell less. word spreads very quick online ,they could have lost thousands before the day is out by the time i finish posting .

i appreciate what you said mate and you are correct ,i knew there was a risk invloved .i took a chance but it shouldnt be like that when buying stuff online . a lot of people who visit here will be newbies and will not have bought a dreambox from china, and with nagra 3 coming will be looking to buy one maybe for cs so my post really is just a message for people to be carefull. and not to buy from china or from dvb monkey ,if you can buy in the uk/ireland or europe you will be safer and where possible use paypal they can help you get your money back if the worst comes to the worst . if you take a chance and pay big money for a box that wont work (your money is gone )forget about the 18 month guarantee thats boll-x and you also lose the money you pay to send it back to china (read the small print) and what says when they recieve your broken box they send you a replacement .be carefull guys.

sg8 buy one local if you can , its worth it to pay a bit extra for peace of mind .you should avoid china mate. if you buy online use paypal (they will then help you recover your money if you had a problem) i have read posts of people who sent their faulty boxes back (never to see them again) . i read a lot of posts on a lot of forums so i knew the risks (but i could not buy one local)so i had to take a chance so its my own fault , but i want to help others if i can . i have been posting on other forums all day, and i can say that they have allready lost a lot more money than the cost of a replacement box for me. and i aint finished yet.

Piopat, understand what you say. havn't used dvb monkey so don't know their story. having said that i do know electronics. so if you say there is a noise when you shake the box, does it not strike that maybe something has come loose internal in the box. Today most main processor boards are fairly compact and simple. can i suggest, since you will get no joy from your supplier, that you get a screwdriver out, open the box and identify what is loose. in many cases that will solve your problem. modern electronics are usually pretty robust, its usually a loose internal connection or circuit board that has become slightly dislodged from its slot. it won't hurt to have a look

Piopat, understand what you say. havn't used dvb monkey so don't know their story. having said that i do know electronics. so if you say there is a noise when you shake the box, does it not strike that maybe something has come loose internal in the box. Today most main processor boards are fairly compact and simple. can i suggest, since you will get no joy from your supplier, that you get a screwdriver out, open the box and identify what is loose. in many cases that will solve your problem. modern electronics are usually pretty robust, its usually a loose internal connection or circuit board that has become slightly dislodged from its slot. it won't hurt to have a look

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your on the ball there fint ,what have i to lose ,normally you wouldnt open a box or tamper with it because it would scupper your gaurantee (which i dont have )your right there its worth a look inside maybe something has come loose .ill give it a go the box cant get any more worse i suppose . thanks mate ill let you know how i got on .

i had a look inside the box ,there are two wires with connectons on them (that arent connected to anything ,that is what the rattle is) i can only assume they are for connecting up the hdd .the dreambox is a pvr so i thought for the amount of money i paid it would have a hdd installed in it (or maybe they pulled it out before sending to me) . i was reading some posts on another forum about dvbmonkey and here is what i got , if you are lucky enough to get an answer from them (it seems this will only happen if you complain to paypal and they contact dvbmonkey) they will give you an address to send the box to for a replacement (there are at least two addresses i have seen) these addresses do not exist ,so no point in sending your box back you will lose even more money .from what i read paypal will tell you to send the box back for a replacement and upon dvbmonkey recieving the box (dvb monkey signing to acknowledge they recieved your parcel)paypal will refund you ,however if the addresses are fake and they are dvb monkey will not be signing for anything (so then you may not get your money from paypal). they likely trade under a few different names (so the likes of dvb monkey and say dvb seller could be one and the same) so again do not buy from china ,try and buy from your own country or atleast within europe .

When you say it's faulty.....what exactly happens when you switch it on, or it doesn't switch on and just sits there with a green light on and no response from the remote ?
Pull the blank plug out of the optical port on the back and see if theres a red light on there.

Post more on here and give all info

I also agree with what ya say about buying from china..............Ya get what ya pay for........................................

it will display (gp)gemini project logo on screen for a few seconds and then a blank screen ,the lcd display works it starts with (dream multi media) and then ends up displaying a volume bar (you know like when you turn up the volume on some thing it starts to fill the higher you go) now it does not nothing only displays the above .i did manage to get the ip from it by powering off then holding the bottom button (on the front of the box)for a few seconds and powering the box up .i tried to get it to work in dream control center but login failed .

it wont flash either i have the base image and nabilosat .nfi image saved on my usb stick but can flash the box .i tried a few versions of dreamup i get to different messages , either it says flash flash failed or flash aborted by user (first time i tried to flash it it said flash failed box is now unuseable )

It sounds like the boot loader is either corrupt or looping.
I'm not sure if J-tagging will help, but at this stage you have nothing to lose.
You might be able to buy a new processor board for it ?
Also, if you do manage to get it to turn on, avoid the GP images like the plague........we all know what they can do to a box.

Dream up is probably the most reliable way to flash these with a null modem cable...... does it get as far as "box is alive and speaking to us" ?
And what operating system is on PC that you use to flash it ?

What you need to flash
You need the image file you want to flash. Image files have the extension *.nfi. You can't flash other
images like *.img files from the DM7000. Don't try it - it won't work.
You need either a DHCP server, a configured bootloader or a serial cable and a terminal program
like HyperTerm.[/COLOR]
You need a browser, and a network cable. If you connect the Dreambox directly to the PC,
you need a cross cable, if you connect trough a switch/hub/router you need a normal
(non-cross) cable.[/COLOR]
To flash a new image, you can use the second stage loader. It must be present and not broken.[/COLOR]
The following steps assume you have a DHCP server. If you don't have one, you have to setup
an IP address in the bootloader's [/COLOR]serial setup[/COLOR]. Oh, and it assumes you have a second-stage
loader newer than Version 37. The Second-stage version is displayed when you poweron the box,
in the LCD. look for "BOOT #37" (which is version 37). If it says "CF FOUND" instead, remove the
compact flash card to see the version message. If it doesn't say anything, it's probably an even
older version.

* - Power down the Dreambox, either using "shutdown" (to enter the deep-standby mode) or by
using the power-switch. Standby is not enough!
[/COLOR]

[/COLOR]
- (1.) Press and hold the lower frontpanel button.
- (2.) Switch on the dreambox, either by using the powerswitch or, in deep-standby mode,
press the power button. Still, hold the lower button.
- (3.) A text "*** STOP ***" should appear. If something like "/flash".. appears, you didn't
hold the right button. Now you can release the button.
The bootloader entered the "waiting" mode.
- (4.) Above the "*** STOP ***" text, there should appear an IP-address
(four decimal values with a dot in between). If there appears the string "dhcp" instead,
the box still searches for a DHCP server. Wait a bit. If it doesn't change, something doesn't
work with the DHCP server. Check wether network cable is plugged in etc. If it just doesn't
work, set an IP using the serial terminal[/COLOR])
[/COLOR]
[/COLOR]

* - Now, open a browser on your PC.
(1.) enter in the address line "http://ip/" (where ip must be replaced with the value in the LCD).
- (2.) on the bottom of the page, there's a link called "firmware upgrade". Click it.
[/COLOR]
[/COLOR]

On the next page, you can select the flash image you want to flash. be sure that it has the ".nfi" extension.
You can't flash other images (like .img)!
- Click on "FLASH!" and wait. It might take some time to upload and flash the image.
- Switch the box off again, and on again. The new image should be flashed and working.

Piopat, are yout trying to load software via crossover cable or using the null modem cable. As said above the null modem cable is the best method. When you open dreamup do you get a connection to the box or not. Is there a light on the main board to prove it is not totally dead. Does the ethernet port have a light on it. If you have lights then there is hope. I would suggest you take a look internally and disconnect what you can. For example you will have a tuner card inside. Disconnect it. Try and just leave the main board as the only connected device within the unit. The main board supports all the io ports so you will still be able to communicate via the null modem cable. It may be that one peripheral circuit boards are faulty and this is dragging the main board down. Its always hit and miss but I've always found from fixing computers that you first start by disconnecting as many things as you can and then if you get up and running connecting one thing at a time until you find what part is faulty

mostly its just at the stage where i click connect , it has a connection and says now plug your box in ,box found dm500,box is alive and well (then flash failed ) or (flash aborted by user) it went for about 30 seconds once (then said flash aborted by user )so it has tried to flash but its not getting there. i never had any trouble with dreamup before so cant figure it out. im going to try one more version of dreamup and then ill try it by the browser . thanks for your help myloyams appreciate it .

mostly its just at the stage where i click connect , it has a connection and says now plug your box in ,box found dm500,box is alive and well (then flash failed ) or (flash aborted by user) it went for about 30 seconds once (then said flash aborted by user )so it has tried to flash but its not getting there. i never had any trouble with dreamup before so cant figure it out. im going to try one more version of dreamup and then ill try it by the browser . thanks for your help myloyams appreciate it .

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hi fint im using the null modem cable ,as i said it got as far as about 30 seconds with the dreamup you gave me (it was counting down how long it would take )it said 32 minutes for it to flash (but it came back with ,flash aborted by user) so it nearly worked . it is powering up and displays the gp logo on screen for a few seconds ,there are lights working and the lcd display works . so its not dead (i wonder would the guys in china have put in the wrong gemini image and fecked it )im going to try to flash once more with a different dreamup and then try the browser route .the rattle inside was 2 wires (i assume they connect to the hard disc drive) but there is no hdd just 2 wires rattling around in side the box.